


Older, wiser

by SQ (proteinscollide)



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Cuddles, past Hyunjae/OFC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 08:50:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20579792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proteinscollide/pseuds/SQ
Summary: There's something on Haknyeon's mind that maybe his hyung could help him with.





	Older, wiser

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to [popliar (littlerhymes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlerhymes/pseuds/popliar) for getting me to finish something and beta-reading this when she doesn't know The Boyz :)

Sometimes Jaehyun thinks wistfully, briefly, about what might have been - a single room all to himself, peace and quiet to go to bed at 10 and fall straight into a deep, dreamless slumber. But in reality...

“What are you doing?” Jaehyun says with a sigh as he walks into the room after a long practice session for vocal unit, the pressure on now that the countdown has begun on their first comeback, happening in barely a few weeks’ time. 

Haknyeon is curled up in the corner of _his_ bed rather than in his own top bunk. He has his earphones in and barely looks up at Jaehyun, just flashes the screen of his phone at him for a moment so Jaehyun can see the neon colours of the latest game the group has been obsessed with. Haknyeon and Eric’s scores have been deadlocked for over a week now. Clearly the battle is still raging. 

Jaehyun shakes his head with a slight smile and leaves the younger boy be. He grabs his toiletries and pyjamas and hightails it to the bathroom, gleefully slamming the door in Kevin’s face when he manages to get there a second earlier. 

When he comes back a short time later, still towelling his hair dry, Haknyeon has made himself even more comfortable in Jaehyun’s bed, now buried under the covers with his head on the pillow, as if settled in for the night. 

Jaehyun sighs again, but slides under the blanket alongside him anyway. “You cannot keep me up all night chatting, and if you steal the blanket again I will kick you out,” he says. 

Haknyeon says seriously, “I promise I won’t!” But his eyes hold a glimmer of laughter, as if hearing the threat has started a whole new wonderful train of thought about how he could misbehave. 

Jaehyun snuggles deeper into his bed, closing his eyes. He’s drifting off but he can still hear the gentle tap tap tap of Haknyeon’s fingers on his phone. 

“Are you still playing that game?” he asks drowsily. 

Haknyeon starts, phone dropping onto the covers, as if he’d forgotten where he was, that Jaehyun was still awake. 

“Not anymore, I was just checking through some fancafe messages,” he says after a long pause. 

“Any nice messages for me?” Jaehyun says, then adds, “I mean, I know there are, but read me some. I want to hear sweet nothings in my ear to lull me to sleep.”

“Nope, not a single one,” Haknyeon teases. “Anyway, I’m too busy looking at all mine to pay attention to you.”

Jaehyun mock frowns in anger, but he knocks his shoulder lightly against Haknyeon to let him know it’s okay. Sometimes jokes about Haknyeon’s continued popularity fall flat, especially outside the walls of their room. Everyone is greedy for that little bit of extra adoration, the sound of their name in cheers; and with the 12 of them it’s not hard for envy to seep into the edges of a bad day and make things worse. 

But in this bunk, in this bed, between the two of them, Jaehyun’s come to terms with it. He can admit to himself how easy it is to like Haknyeon, to want his attention, to want to make him smile in return, to want him. 

Haknyeon stays quiet though, almost uncharacteristically so, and Jaehyun frowns in earnest. “Are there - we don’t have to report any of the messages again, do we?” he says sharply, ready to go to war on Haknyeon’s behalf. 

Haknyeon looks up from the phone a beat slow, biting down nervously on his lower lip, a little crease between his eyes. “No, it’s not that - ”

He sounds uncertain, and Jaehyun’s heart skips a beat. He’s reaching out for the phone to see for himself, worried it might be more death threats and poison against the boy and his family, the ugly flip side to the popularity. 

Haknyeon pulls back his phone in a panic, stuttering instead, “No really, it’s not - just - hyung, you’ve kissed people before, right?”

Jaehyun blinks, surprised at the change in topic. “Yeah, of course,” he answers, bemused. There’s not been that many, really, when he counts them off in his head: two high-school girlfriends, and a few Loen trainees long gone now. It’s a while in the past too, with the busy schedule of a rookie idol better than any chaperone, but the memories are still there to get him through some long nights since. 

He shifts on his side to face Haknyeon, curious in return. “Why are you asking all of a sudden?”

Haknyeon flushes, and Jaehyun finds it fascinating to see him turning a deeper red even in the low light of their room. “No reason,” he lies terribly, still clutching his phone tightly in one hand. “Just - just making conversation, that’s all.”

Jaehyun’s had enough experience dealing with his younger group members that he knows exactly what to do next - wait. He keeps his eyes fixed on Haknyeon, not saying a word, until the silence stretches so thin it becomes loud. 

“Isitnicekissingsomeone?” Haknyeon asks finally, slurring the words together in his panicked rush. “It just - it looks kinda messy and weird in dramas.”

Jaehyun spins up memories of his last girlfriend - holding hands while walking along the river between long trainee classes, making out hurriedly in one of the empty practice rooms with his hands just under the edge of her top, the way she’d felt wrapped around him. “Yeah, it is nice,” he says slowly, recalling. “Just being close to someone, feeling comfortable enough to be with them and share a moment. And the anticipation of what comes next - yeah.”

He lets out a big sigh, one he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding. 

“Comfortable... close... kind of like this?” Haknyeon says quietly, in a puzzled sort of voice. 

Jaehyun snaps out of his memories to look back at Haknyeon, wondering what’s going on in the other boy’s head. “Uh, what - ”

And maybe he should’ve expected it - Haknyeon’s always on the move, always doing before thinking - but somehow Jaehyun is still surprised when Haknyeon kisses him, lips finding his in the near dark in a firm, dry press. 

He has just enough time to process this, sharp and clear, along with the low sounds of movement in the kitchen just outside their bedroom door, the speeding up of his heart now beating in rapid fire, the clean scent of soap from Haknyeon’s hair; and then Haknyeon is pulling back shyly, shrinking back into the corner of the bed. 

“...not quite like that,” Jaehyun says before he can think better of it, then mentally kicks himself as Haknyeon’s face falls. And adds, in his head: _why not?_ The feeling of Haknyeon curled up by his side, in bed; the intimacy of it does remind him of being with Soohyun in their quieter moments together. 

He reaches out to pull the other boy closer, even as Hakneyon tries to squirm away in embarrassment. “No wait, I don’t mean - you can’t just spring something like that on me,” he says, feeling the heat in his cheeks, his ears. “I wasn’t ready for it, that’s all,” he says instead, suddenly feeling bold. 

Haknyeon stops moving and watches him with his eyes wide, even as he tugs him closer still, until they’re kissing once again, and this time he doesn't freeze up, doesn't think, and Haknyeon enthusiastically follows his lead.

"Was that nice?" Jaehyun asks shyly, a little later again, when he's got Haknyeon snuggled up against his side, drowsy and sated, phone finally put away.

"Mmmm," Haknyeon hums, burying his face further into the side of Jaehyun's neck. His breathing evens out soon after, and Jaehyun tumbles into slumber with him, the peace and quiet he's been chasing all along.

END


End file.
